Where You Belong
by Queenbean3
Summary: EVE agrees to go on a space mission with her sister probes. She will be away from Earth for three weeks. Can she and WALL-E stand to be apart that long?
1. Where You Belong

Disclaimer: _WALL·E_ is the property of Disney/Pixar and not me. There ya go.

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Where You Belong

The parking lot of the huge facility formerly known as the _Buy N Large Mega Mall_ was bustling with activity. Men, women, and robots were toiling away together under the hot summer sun with a common purpose. Their mission was to convert the former shopping center into a spaceport, a project which had been in progress for over five years.

In less than fifteen years, the surface of the Earth was to a stable environment to support life. Or at least, the area where the humans had colonized was livable. With that mission completed, the Captain and his colony turned their sights to the sky. The atmosphere remained so cluttered with satellites that it was nearly as polluted as the ground and ocean had been. They didn't affect the air's breathability, but there was always the danger that they could fall to Earth and do serious damage to the still healing planet.

That was the reason this spaceport was built. Now that it was completed, a rocket would be sent up to deploy robots to dispose of the debris that still orbited the planet. There was already one rocket available which contained five robots capable of doing the job. That rocket had traveled to Earth from space before, and those robots had been deployed to search for signs of plant life.

Only one of these robots had completed this mission successfully, and she was the only one that was still currently active. She was Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator Probe 1, better known as EVE.

Today EVE was hovering in the shadow of the rocket standing on the launch pad. Beside her was her mate WALL·E. Both of them were feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.

Behind the robot couple was a human couple, good friends of theirs, both wearing hats and shoes to keep off the heat. Neither of them had ever seen the rocket before and both were in a state of awe.

"Wow, it's huge!" Mary exclaimed. She was wearing sunglasses and a wide straw hat, but she was still just as sweaty as her husband. "How long did it take to move it here, John?"

"About three days, I think." John replied. He wore a baseball cap and a pair of aviator shades he thought made him look very manly. "Those WALL·A units were the ones that carried it from the Axiom. They're super strong, remember?"

Mary only said _hmm_ to this and started looking around at other parts of the launch pad. "I can't see Hannah. Wasn't she supposed to meet us here?"

"She's didn't say on the phone where to meet her." John said. "But I think she's probably inside the complex, where the robots are."

"Oh, that's right." Mary said. "Hannah's bound to be wherever robots are."

"They have water in there, too." John pointed out. "I don't know about you, but I'm parched! Let's get in there before we fry out here!"

It was a long way from the launch pad to the old mega mall, so they drove. While transport bots were the main mode of transportation for robots, humans got around the complex in golf carts. John and Mary sat in front and continued to complain about the heat. EVE and WALL·E rode in the seats behind them. They did not mind the weather as much, as both of them were built to withstand harsh climates, though they knew if they stayed out too long it might cause their circuits to overheat. As they drove closer to the main building WALL·E saw more working robots he recognized and waved to them. Most of them saw him though few of them were free to wave back. EVE remained focused on their goal, eager to see what their young friend Hannah the roboticist was up to.

Actually, none of them knew what Hannah had been up to lately, not even her parents. All they knew was that the Captain had asked her to work at the spaceport on a top-secret project. Her friends and family all suspected the job had something to do with robots, but what the job was exactly remained a mystery. Today was the first time they were invited to come to the spaceport, and they all hoped to finally discover what the big secret was.

Once inside the building John and Mary were much happier. They stopped to enjoy the air conditioning and the drinking fountain. The inside of the old shopping center was almost as big as the Axiom's Lido Deck and just as crowded with human and robot traffic. The main difference was that none of the humans were lounging in hover-chairs, but walking and running around briskly. Among them was M-O, the little cleaner bot who came to meet them. The first thing he did was greet WALL·E, then scrub him down thoroughly with his brush to remove the dust he'd picked up from outside.

"Hey, M-O!" said John, kneeling on the floor to look at him eye to eye. "Have you seen Hannah today?"

M-O nodded his cubical head. "Up." he said, and lead the group to an elevator.

He wasn't tall enough to reach the buttons, so John did it for him. Once the three robots and the two humans were inside the elevator, M-O stated another direction. "Four."

John pushed the button for the fourth floor, and soon they were flying straight up at high speed. When the doors opened again, M-O hopped out first and urged the group to follow him. He led them to a store that had once sold household robots but was now more like a mechanic's workshop. There were lots of men inside fiddling with electronic equipment and robots assisting them.

M-O passed them all by and headed for a corner of the room that was less crowded. Here he stopped, as did his group. What they saw there was a surprise to them all.

Four white egg-shaped robots were there levitating side by side, each of them completely identical to EVE. They appeared to be listening to a scrawny freckled girl seated in an inflatable armchair. She was showing them pictures of outer space from a small laptop computer.

To say that WALL·E was shocked would be an understatement. Somehow it had never occurred to him that his own EVE might have been just one of many other probe-bots. He had always believed she was totally unique, but now there was not just one, but _five_ of her! EVE, meanwhile, had always known she was not the only one of her kind, but this was her first time actually meeting other robots like herself. She watched her replicas with complete fascination and leaned forward with great interest. "Oooh!"

At the sound of her voice the four other probes turned and gazed back curiously. "Oooh!" they echoed in a chorus.

The girl in the chair giggled, closed her computer and stood up. "Hi, Mom and Dad! Hey, guys! Glad you could make it!"

John and Mary had watched the robots completely dumbstruck until she spoke. "Hannah!" John said. "What's going on here? Is this the secret project you've been working on for the past two weeks?"

Hannah put her hands on her hips and stuck out her small chest proudly. "Yup! The Captain asked me to work with the EVE Probes! Aren't they just so totally awesome? They're the ones who'll be going up in the rocket. I've just been explaining their new directive to them, since they've never been on a space mission before."

At the moment, Probes 2 through 5 were playing a sort of game of copycat with Probe 1. When EVE lifted her right arm, they all lifted their right arms at the same time. When she waved both her arms, they did it as well in perfect unison. EVE found this very entertaining and giggled, which her sister probes also mimicked.

WALL·E couldn't stop staring at the four of them in total bafflement. "Eee-vah?"

All five EVE probes looked at him with varying degrees of curiosity. For one terrifying moment he couldn't tell which one was his. Luckily Hannah came to his rescue. "Oh, we already decided that calling them all 'EVE' would be too confusing, so we let them pick new names for themselves. Girls, tell them what your names are!"

Probe 2 pointed to her chest. "Rose."

Probe 3 did the same. "Violet."

Probe 4. "Lily."

Probe 5. "Daisy."

WALL·E gave a sigh of relief. Feeling braver now he rolled a bit closer to the probes and stated his name. "WALL·E."

The four probes looked straight at him. "WALL·E." they said in perfect unison.

While the robots interacted, Hannah's parents remained puzzled by them. John took his hat off and scratched his head. "Why all the flower names?"

Hannah shrugged. "They're vegetation evaluators. They like plants."

"Why do they keep doing that copying thing?" Mary asked.

"That's how they learn." Hannah explained. "It's not so different from humans, actually. We learn things by imitation, too."

"But why are they doing everything at the same time?"

"Because they all have the same programming. Right now their brainpower is still at a machine level, so they haven't quite developed their own identities yet. That's another reason we decided to give them different names, to help them see themselves as individuals and not just copies of each other. I wanted to give them all different paint jobs, too, but the Captain said no. He thinks glitter glue is too messy."

John and Mary just smiled and nodded as she rambled, not really knowing what all of her technical jargon meant. Neither of them had a head for technology. They were both farmers, so everything their daughter was saying sounded like a foreign language to them. They were proud of her, though, and did their best to be supportive parents. She was very smart and very talented, and they knew she was destined for great things. The fact that the Captain had trusted her with an important job at the spaceport was just the first step toward a bright future.

Before Hannah could lose her parents too deeply in the details of the inner workings of the probes and move on to explaining how their rocket was also a kind of robot, M-O returned with the Captain. "Hey, everyone!" the man said, holding a clipboard in one hand and saluting with the other. "I see you've met EVE's little sisters already!"

Hannah and all five EVE units saluted to him. John, Mary and WALL·E looked surprised again.

"Little sisters?" John repeated.

"Yeah, they were made after her, so that makes her the oldest. That's part of the reason I invited her here." He turned to EVE and assumed a very businesslike tone of voice. "EVE, you've been the most active of the probe-bots and you've learned the most in the past fifteen years. I'd like to have you lead their space mission and show them how it's done."

EVE's blue eyes widened into surprised circles. WALL·E gasped in horror. But before he could protest, EVE was giving her answer. "Aye-aye, Captain!"

The Captain grinned and looked at his clipboard. "Excellent! The launch date is next Monday, and the trip should be about three weeks long. When you come back we can discuss the possibility of longer space missions in the future."

And just like that, WALL·E's world began to fall apart.

_To be continued..._


	2. Thrust

Thrust

As the days counted down to the launch date, EVE began spending more time with her sister probes.

On the first day she took them outside of the launch complex to begin training with them. This turned out to be more difficult than she had first anticipated. When she first met her sisters, they all seemed to share the same brain. But just like Hannah had said, Probes 2 through 5 were developing personalities, and those personalities did not always get along with each other. The Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluators had all been programmed to work by themselves, not in a group, so a pecking order was established almost as soon as they met.

Probe 2, Rose, was the bossy one. She had been the leader before EVE came along, so she insisted on going first in everything and became sulky if she did not get this privilege. Probe 3, Violet, was the hot-head. Her temper was short and fierce, and she would get into fights with the others over minor things. She would also start fights just out of boredom. Probe 4, Lily, was the girly one. She preferred flirting to fighting, giggled too much, and was a clumsy shot. This made her the favorite target of Violet's bullying. Probe 5, Daisy, was the baby of the group. She was curious about everything and had a short attention span. If she felt ignored she would get noisy, which put her at odds with Rose for a place in the spotlight.

As soon as she saw them bickering, EVE decided that she would not put up with this kind of nonsense. She made it clear by blasting the nearest pile of garbage with her cannon. The pecking order quickly changed after that.

From that day on, EVE devoted all her energy to turning the independent probes into a team. She spent at least one day alone with each of them to find out their skills and what they needed to learn. This not only helped her, but it helped them. Soon each sister came to respect her as their leader, and knew if they stepped out of line they would have to answer to her.

When EVE went out with her sisters, WALL·E felt as though she were already disappearing.

At first he was stunned that EVE would agree to leave Earth so willingly. But from the way she was acting now it was obvious that going to space was something she truly wanted to do. It made sense, really. Up there she would be free to fly and use her cannon to her heart's content, something she could not do so much on Earth due to gravity and the risk of harming someone. And she could bond with her long-lost sisters, something she was very excited about. WALL·E, however, felt exactly the opposite. If EVE was up in space, she would be really far away from him, and for a really long time. Three weeks? He couldn't stand being apart from her for twenty-four hours!

EVE was so focused on training herself and her sisters for the mission that she remained mostly oblivious to her partner's feelings. She would leave for the spaceport early each morning before he woke up, train all day, and return home late at night. WALL·E tried waiting up for her, but she would always be exhausted and go straight to sleep mode.

Then the launch date came.

It was the day EVE had been waiting for, and the day WALL·E had been dreading. They went to the spaceport together, the first time since a week ago that they went anywhere together. WALL·E brought Hal along this time. He was going to need his company more than ever. When they arrived at the spaceport, the Captain, John, Mary, and Hannah were there waiting for them. The team of probes was also there, all lined up side by side and being cleaned by M-O and his crew.

Just before EVE went to join her team, WALL·E sped up to her and caught her hand. He opened his front panel and took something out.

It was an old BnL cigarette lighter.

EVE stared at him. For the first time since she accepted this mission, she realized exactly what she was about to do.

She held WALL·E's hand for a long moment and just looked at him, memorizing every detail of his appearance. He looked back at her, quietly hoping she would change her mind and forget this whole crazy mission. But it was too late for her to turn back now. The rocket was on the launch pad, and the Captain and her sister probes were waiting. She took the lighter from him and stored it in her own torso chamber. Then she leaned forward and gave him a kiss goodbye.

Probes 2 through 5 watched this whole scene between their sister and the funny garbage-bot with keen interest. They did not understand what it meant, yet somehow they sensed it was important.

It was with great reluctance that EVE finally released WALL·E's hand and joined her sister probes. She did not look back as the transport-bot carried them out of the launch complex and toward the rocket on the launch pad. WALL·E sat there watching her retreating back, and probably would have sat there for hours if Hannah had not suddenly bounced up to him. The human teen had a smile so huge that he was afraid it would break her face.

"WALL·E! WALL·E! Let's go watch the launch from the roof! That's where the best view is!"

She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the elevator with John and Mary. When they got to the roof of the building many other humans and robots were already there. Soon M-O's group of cleaner bots joined them. The air was buzzing with excited voices and chatter. WALL·E was given a spot up front. He pulled himself up as tall as he could and leaned up against the low wall. Off in the distance was the launch pad. From this distance the mighty rocket looked like just a little toy, even when he zoomed in as far as he could. The maintenance bots doing last-minute work on the ship's outer hull looked like lots of little bugs crawling and buzzing around it.

As he stared at the rocket, WALL·E wrung his metal hands together. He remembered the last time that ship had taken EVE away from him. He wished he could chase after it and cling to the ladder on the outside like before. But an Earth class robot like him would just get in the way. He couldn't fly or blow things up, so he would be no help to EVE in space. He could only wait for her and hope she would return to him safe and sound.

Five white identical dots filed into the rocket. Only one of them seemed to hesitate before entering. Then the hatch closed and the count down began. It was the Captain's voice coming from the control tower. "T minus twenty seconds and counting." The ship's engines began to roar and smoke started to billow out underneath it. The Captain's voice continued the countdown. The clouds of smoke became thicker and the roaring grew louder.

"Five… four…three…two…one!"

The rocket rose up on a fiery pillar, all three of its jets blazing like miniature suns. The humans cheered and clapped while M-O and the other robots made excited electrical noises. Only WALL·E remained silent. He kept staring at the ship until it was just a tiny speck up in the sky. Then he sighed a deep, mechanical sigh.

These were going to be the longest three weeks of his life.

EVE was in sleep mode during the launch and remained that way until the ship was high above the Earth. When she awoke she was just a few yards away from a dense field of satellites. The probe ship was entering an orbital pattern, and Probes 2 through 5 had formed a circle around her, waiting for her to show them how to perform their new directive.

As she looked into the faces of each one of them, EVE's resolve became firm. She could not think about what she had left behind while her team and the Captain were all counting on her. So she surveyed the cluttered atmosphere, spotted a particularly large and old satellite, and took off toward it. Without gravity to slow her down she was within range of her target in seconds. Sensing the eyes of her sisters on her, she deployed her quasar ion cannon, took aim at one of the large satellite's solar panels, and fired.

The panel made a satisfying _boom_ as it exploded. EVE fired four more shots to destroy the remaining panels and then the main body of the satellite. Now all that was left of it were specks of tiny burning embers.

Impressed, Probes 2 through 5 gave a collective "Oooh."

Feeling confident, EVE set her sights on another large satellite and repeated the process of destroying it piece by piece. When she had done this three more times the other probes began to understand her method. Most of the satellites consisted of solar panels and a central body. If EVE blew up the center first, the explosion would blow the panels away, and in this weightless environment they would fly far out of range. Working from the outside in was the most efficient way to get the job done.

So one by one, Probes 2 through 5 spread out from their leader and began using their own cannons to destroy more satellites. EVE watched them with a sense of pride. Then she went right back to work. She was truly enjoying this opportunity to use her cannon again. There were plenty of targets out here for her to shoot at. This was not work to her. Work was boring. This was _fun. _For the next three hours she steadily carved a path with her cannon through the cluttered mass of junk, leaving a trail of glittering dust in her wake.

When she broke through to the other side of the mass, she froze.

Not once in all her past trips on the probe ship had EVE ever seen Earth from space. She had always been in sleep mode, and only knew what the planet looked like from images on holo-screens. The real thing was far more beautiful than any of those images could hope to be, and many, many times larger. For the first time EVE felt small and insignificant in the eyes of the universe. She wondered if WALL·E had seen the world like this before.

And just like, that EVE's good mood was gone.

Everything she had tried not to think about was now flooding her head. For the first time in fifteen years she was away from WALL·E, the farthest she had ever been from him. What was he doing now? Was he trying not to think about her? Was he still going to work? Was he keeping his batteries charged and feeding Hal properly?

She stared at the greenish brown patches of land and wondered which one he was on. From this height there was no way to tell where the colony was, not even with her enhanced robotic vision. She couldn't even be sure if he was on the side of the planet she was looking at. On a whim she opened her torso chamber and took out the BnL lighter he'd given her. She flipped the lid open and tried to ignite a flame.

Nothing happened.

She tried again. Still nothing. Not even a spark.

EVE became worried. This had never happened before. As she struggled with the lighter, she did not notice Probe 2, Rose, watching her from a short distance. She made a noise to get her leader's attention. "Are you alright?" she asked in their native robotic dialect.

Surprised, EVE quickly stowed the lighter inside her torso chamber and pretended nothing was wrong. "Yes, everything is fine. Don't worry about me." she answered in the same dialect. Rose was not entirely convinced, but she went back to her work anyway.

EVE took one more look at the planet before doing the same.

These were going to be the longest three weeks of her life.

_To be continued..._


	3. Worry Wait

Worry Wait

One morning, WALL·E did not report to the city junkyard for work.

He did not go to work the next day, either, or the next. The human and robot workers began wondering if something had happened to him. Eventually M-O found out, and took it upon himself to investigate.

When he found his friend he was sitting on top of his truck staring up at the sky. Hal scurried down the ramp from the roof to meet the visitor, but his master remained stationary. The cleaner-bot was used to the germy bug and let it crawl up on top of his head. He beeped up from the ground at WALL·E, but he did not reply. M-O rolled up the ramp to join him and beeped at him again, asking why he had not gone to work.

WALL·E said nothing. He slowly turned his drooping optics to look at the little cleaner-bot, as if noticing him for the first time. Then he returned his gaze to the sky. A heavy groan came from somewhere deep in his body.

Confused, M-O tried talking to him again. But try as he might, he could not get WALL·E's attention. After an hour of chattering, then shouting, then banging on him with his brush, WALL·E had done nothing but stay totally silent and focused on the sky.

Finally, M-O was convinced that his friend had a serious problem. As he rolled down the ramp and away from the truck, the cleaner-bot began considering who he should report this problem to. If he told it to the other robots they would make a big fuss and that would make everything worse. He could try telling the Captain, but he was miles off at the spaceport and could barely understand a word M-O said anyway.

That left only one option; Hannah.

Although she wasn't even fifteen years old yet, Hannah could understand robots better than any other human in the colony. Perhaps it was because she had been so warmly received by the robots when she was small, or perhaps she was just weird. M-O thought it was a combination of both. Either way, WALL·E often went to her if he had a problem that he couldn't fix himself.

When the human girl was a baby, M-O's relationship to Hannah was rocky at best. He did not visit her family often, but since both parties were friends with WALL·E there were many times when they would bump into each other. Those meetings were always the same. M-O still had nightmares about having his head gnawed on by the drooling, teething infant.

Several years later, when Hannah was older and taller, M-O bumped into her again. The robot was about to make a run for it, but the girl simply said _hello _and went back to playing some ball game with the other children. This was a big relief to M-O. Now that Hannah was more interested in playing with her human friends than with him, he could stop worrying and get on with his very important cleaning work.

But as time passed, M-O began to feel like the child had forgotten about him. He did not like being forgotten.

Then one day, M-O was in a terrible accident. He and his crew had been busy cleaning up the interior of an old building that was soon to be inhabited, when all of a sudden the ceiling collapsed. M-O was so focused on scrubbing the floor that he did not notice the falling bricks until they were on top of him.

When his system rebooted itself, the first thing he saw was Hannah's worried face covered in dirt and grease. His panicked team had called WALL·E to dig him out of the rubble, and WALL·E had rushed him to Hannah for help. The girl had performed an emergency procedure and reconnected his broken parts with glue, scissors and tape. It was a very sloppy patch-up job, but it was enough to keep him in stable condition until the official repair-bots came and took over.

As soon as she saw he was alive, Hannah scooped the tiny cleaner-bot up in her arms and drenched him with tears. M-O did not mind at all.

Today Hannah was not playing with her friends or working at the spaceport. She was in her workshop, which was actually an old shed John had built for her out of wooden planks behind their apartment building. When M-O saw her she was sitting at her desk in the corner, tinkering with something that was too high for him to see. She was also chewing a piece of bubble gum and listening to noisy music from a pocket-size MP3 player. It was so loud that M-O could hear it through her ear buds. Knowing she wouldn't be able to hear him, he bumped himself against her chair to get her attention.

When she noticed him down on the floor she grinned. She spun her chair around and pulled a lever under the seat, bringing her closer to the ground. "Hey there, Mo-Mo! Nice of you to drop in! How's my favorite Microbe Obliterator doing? You need a new scrub brush or something?"

M-O shook his head and proceeded to explain his encounter with WALL·E in his own robotic dialect. Most humans would just take his noise as gibberish, but being a roboticist, Hannah had learned the basics of various robot languages and could make out certain words and phrases. She would one day create a translation device that would help all robots and humans understand each other flawlessly, but that was far in the future and her list of grandiose ideas was long.

As she listened to M-O's story, Hannah's expression became more serious. When he was finished she pressed the 'pause' button on her music player and chewed her gum thoughtfully. "Hmm…That sounds pretty weird. Not like WALL·E at all. Maybe I'd better go see him."

So Hannah climbed on her bicycle and let M-O ride in the front basket. The little robot considered this kind of transportation as safe as riding a roller coaster without a seat-belt, but at least it was faster than using his roller-ball. In fifteen minutes the girl had brought him back to the old overpass by the bay where the trailer was. Sure enough, WALL·E was still in the same spot where M-O had left him.

Hannah tried to get the garbage-bot to notice her. "Hey, WALL·E! What are you doing up there?"

WALL·E didn't answer. He didn't even turn his head. He just kept staring up at the sky, which was just now beginning to darken. As the sun set, he opened his hollow body, took out a BnL lighter and flicked the switch. A tiny flame came on. He sighed heavily.

Hannah watched the scene very pensively. Then she sighed. "Oh, boy. This is worse than I thought."

M-O made some questioning beeps to her.

Hannah's shoulders slumped. She shook her head. "No, I can't fix this kind of problem. It's not a glitch, it's emotions. WALL·E's sad because EVE isn't here. He'll only be happy again when she comes back."

M-O hung his head in disappointment. Deep down he had suspected as much, but he'd hoped it would have been a simple glitch instead. Emotional problems were much more difficult to fix than mechanical ones.

Hannah tried to smile and patted his head. "Don't feel bad, little guy. It's just another week and a half. That's not very long."

Then she scooped him into the basket of her bike and began riding away. M-O remained quiet. There _had_ to be some way to get WALL·E out of his funk. He had never given up on his best friend before, and he certainly wouldn't now. He owed WALL·E his life. The least he could do in return was cheer him up a little.

As soon as Hannah dropped him off at his residence with the other cleaner bots, M-O began hatching a plan. It was a very big plan for a little robot, so he would need back up from his bigger friends. There was no way he could bring EVE back from space, but if his plan worked, he could make WALL·E happy enough to last until she came home. So M-O went to his cubby, entered sleep mode, and waited. He had a busy day ahead of him.

When night came, WALL·E was still sitting on top of the truck's roof gazing up at the stars.

He should have gone to sleep hours ago, but the inside of the truck was too big and empty to sleep in. Everything in there reminded him of EVE and that she was not there. It hadn't been so bad before, when he had gone to work with his friends to distract him. But when work was over and his friends had gone home, WALL·E was left alone with his thoughts. Naturally, all of his thoughts were about EVE.

Even Hal made him think of her. Actually, the cockroach that was WALL·E's current pet was not the same Hal he had fifteen years ago. Despite their physical toughness, cockroaches have a very short lifespan of about one to two years. EVE had discovered this fact one morning long ago and quickly replaced the dead insect with a live one before WALL·E woke up. He realized the difference within three days, and found out the truth shortly after.

Nevertheless, EVE had continued replacing the dead cockroaches with new ones every year. That was why WALL·E could not bring himself to look at Hal, even though the insect was sleeping soundly on his shoulder. This Hal, and all the fourteen other Hals, was a gift to him from EVE. She had found and given him all those cockroaches for no other reason than to make him happy.

That was why WALL·E was scanning the skies now. He was searching for some sign of her up in the stars. He tried to tell himself that she was not gone forever. As soon as her mission was done, EVE would be back and then everything would be fine again. But a larger part of him, which was more sentimental and neurotic, believed that she had gone back to her true home. EVE had come to him from the sky to begin with. It was only natural that she would go back there one day. Even while she was on Earth her body rarely touched the ground. The sky was her element. Space was where she came from, what she was built for, where she belonged.

However, EVE did not stay happy in space for long.

All of the probe-bots worked for twelve-hour cycles each day and then entered sleep mode for another twelve hours to save power. During waking hours they did more than just blow satellites up. They had to scan each one to make sure they were the right kind to be destroyed. Certain types were off-limits because they were necessary for communication on Earth.

The probes were all spread throughout the debris field, but they were close enough to stay in contact with one another. So it wasn't long before EVE's sisters began to notice something was wrong with her. For the first few days EVE had been her typical hard-working self. But little by little she seemed to be slowing down. She would often stop and stare down at the Earth below, and she constantly tried to make the cigarette lighter start a flame.

Rose was not the only one to notice this odd behavior. Soon Violet, Lily and Daisy also sensed that something was wrong with their big sister. One day the four of them gathered together in one spot to discuss the issue. EVE was several yards off, staring down at the Earth with sad eyes. From their position her sister probes could see her.

None of them said a word. Then Rose took the initiative. She spoke to the others in a series of electronic warbles that they clearly understood as complete sentences. "Something is wrong with EVE. In the past few days her behavior has changed drastically. Her productivity has slowed down until she no longer works. Directive is in jeopardy."

Violet, Lily and Daisy nodded their heads in agreement. "EVE is a strict leader." Violet said. "She pushed us constantly in our training to be better. Now she only watches the Earth and plays with that little box. This does not compute."

"She may be experiencing a malfunction." Lily suggested. "There is much loose debris in this environment. Her processor may have received damage."

Rose shook her head. "Negative. If EVE were damaged, we would receive a signal and the ship would retrieve her for repairs. The problem lies elsewhere."

The probes were silent for a moment, trying to think of what else could be causing their sister's trouble. All of them, that is, except for Daisy. She had been curiously watching EVE in the distance while her sisters talked. Then she made a thoughtful humming noise. EVE was holding the lighter in her hands, staring at it hopelessly.

"That little box …" Daisy mused aloud. "It was given to her by the robot called WALL·E."

"Affirmative," Rose replied. "But irrelevant."

"Negative." Daisy said. "EVE showed no weakness until her parting with WALL·E. All of us saw this occur."

The three probes became thoughtful. "Daisy's point is valid." Lily commented. "EVE expressed strong emotions toward WALL·E. Emotions have a strong effect on her."

Violet made an irritated face. "Then the problem is because of WALL·E. He is causing EVE's emotions to interfere with the directive."

"Do not jump to conclusions." Lily chided. "We have only been active for a short time. We have not learned complex emotions, or the depth of EVE's bond with WALL·E."

Rose became very serious then. "It makes no difference now. We must continue our directive, regardless of EVE's emotional malfunction."

"How?" Daisy questioned. "If EVE does not work, our efficiency will decrease. Something must be done."

"We must send a report to mission control." Violet stated. "The Captain must be informed of the situation."

Rose shook her head. "Negative. Once EVE's lack of progress becomes known to the humans, they will consider her defective. We must double our own productivity instead."

The three other probes grew wide-eyed. "Not possible!" Violet exclaimed. "There are only 10.5 days left until the ship returns to collect us!"

Rose's blue eyes narrowed, the same way EVE's would when she was being absolutely serious. "We will _make_ it possible. EVE is more than our leader. She is our _sister_. We must continue our directive, and we must do it _better_ than before."

Violet and Lily exchanged doubtful glances, but Daisy was excited by the speech. She beamed and clapped her hands together like a child. "Yes! Come, sisters! Let us work together!"

The youngest probe sped off before the others could reply. They exchanged nods of agreement and followed.

EVE continued to stare at the Earth, unaware of what her sisters were doing. The lighter hung limply from her hand.

_To be continued…_


	4. All That Love's About

All That Love's About

Usually WALL·E enjoyed riding the Downtown Transit. But not today.

That morning he had woken up on the roof of his truck. He unfolded his solar panels and charged his batteries. Then he proceeded to sit and stare at the sky again, as he had for the past several days. He remained oblivious to Hal the 15th's attempts to play with him, and did not realize that he had not fed his pet in days. Had he been any other kind of insect, Hal might have died from starvation by now.

And then suddenly, WALL·E was ambushed.

First there was a loud cacophony of electronic voices, then dozens of mechanical appendages snatching and lifting him off the truck's roof. Before he knew what was happening WALL·E was whisked down the street and past confused pedestrians. He flailed his arms desperately and cried out for someone to come to his rescue.

Then one of his captors began singing a tune he recognized. It was VN-GO the paint-bot humming _Put on Your Sunday Clothes_. VA-QM was there, too, and so were BRL-A, HAN-S, D-FIB, PR-T, and L-T. At the front of the noisy procession was M-O, his little red light flashing on his head to keep the path before them clear. Now more confused than frightened, WALL·E attempted to ask his friends just what the heck was going on, but nobody seemed to hear him. They just kept going until they reached the Downtown Transit station. As if on cue, a train pulled in and the ragtag group clambered in.

They did not put WALL·E down until the doors shut and the vehicle started moving. Then they became unusually quiet. Even VN-GO had stopped his humming. VA-QM made some wheezing noises, as if the rush to catch the train had left him out of breath. BRL-A was too tall for the low ceiling and had to bend at an awkward angle to fit. The four hovering bots were lined up by the windows watching the scenery pass outside. There were no other passengers in the car besides them.

Then WALL·E noticed M-O. The cleaner-bot had hunkered down in a corner and seemed to be on standby mode. WALL·E guessed correctly that he was behind all this madness. He rolled up to the smaller robot to get some answers out of him. "M-O?"

The cleaner-bot did not respond. WALL·E whistled a bit and poked him slightly. M-O's narrow yellow eyes peered back. His small voice sounded a bit cranky, as if he'd just been woken up from a nap. "What?"

WALL·E tilted his optics in confusion. "Where we go?"

M-O gave a small grunt. "Spaceport."

WALL·E blinked, still confused. "Why?"

"Classified." M-O answered. Then he went back to standby mode.

WALL·E tried asking the other bots. PR-T, the most chatty of them, almost answered him but the others quickly shushed her. Whatever the reason for going to the spaceport was, it seemed WALL·E would not find it out now. So he rolled over to a seat, lifted himself onto it and waited for the train to reach their destination.

When they finally got to the spaceport, M-O led everyone to the control center. There were two security bots guarding at the entrance to the room. When WALL·E and M-O's group approached the guards both firmly stated the same thing. "Halt. Restricted access. Authorization required."

M-O replied in his standard language, but mixed in his babble were the words _WALL·E, Captain,_ and _directive_. After a moment of electronic deliberation, the stewards rolled aside. "Access granted."

WALL·E had never been inside the control center before. There were many humans there seated in front of glowing computer screens and tapping keyboards. The Captain was also there, seated in a revolving chair and watching the biggest screen on the wall across the room. It showed a large image of the Earth and some symbols indicating the locations of the five EVE probes and their rocket.

As WALL·E marveled at all the screens, M-O made a beeline for the Captain and began chattering at him very rapidly. The man looked down at the small robot on the floor with surprise first, and then confusion. "Whoa, whoa! I don't speak 'cleaner-bot', M-O! Slow down and start over!"

Frustrated, M-O tried very hard to translate what he was trying to say. "Uhh … WALL·E … need talk … Eee-vah …"

The Captain rubbed his chin in thought. He looked at WALL·E, who was gazing at the large image of the Earth in wonder. Rumors had filtered to him that the garbage-bot had not been acting like himself lately, but the Captain had been too busy at the spaceport to confirm them.

M-O chirped at him, still waiting for a reply. "Captain?"

The Captain was quiet a moment longer, then he nodded to M-O. "Give me a minute, I'll see what I can do." He then stood up from his chair and walked over to one of the many technicians. The two of them exchanged a few words, then the Captain beckoned to the cleaner-bot. "Okay, bring him over."

Suddenly WALL·E found himself being pushed across the floor by M-O and the rest of his robot friends. When they stopped he was right in front of the Captain and the technician. Still not understanding what was happening, WALL·E shrank into his cube a bit, thinking he might be in trouble for something.

The technician, a young man in his twenties, spoke to the Captain. "Okay, sir, the connection is enabled."

"Good." The Captain then picked up a microphone from the desk and spoke into it. "Earth to Probe 1. Earth to Probe 1. Do you copy?"

A bit of static crackled through the speakers. Then there was a voice. "Probe 1 to Earth … Copy."

WALL·E's optics perked up. He _knew_ that voice.

Then the Captain spoke again. "Probe 1, this is the Captain speaking. Is your connection stable?"

"Affirmative." the voice answered. "Connection stable."

He handed the microphone to WALL·E and smiled. "Go ahead, buddy. It's your turn."

WALL·E held the microphone clumsily between his hands and eyed it curiously for a moment. Then, somewhat nervously, he spoke. "Ee … Eee-vah?"

There was a surprised gasp on the other end. "WALL·E?"

"Eee-vah!" he exclaimed. He started to bounce excitedly, looking at the Captain and his friends and pointing at the microphone in amazement. "Eee-vah! Eee-vah!"

M-O beamed with pride. His plan was working. Already his friend was starting to act like his former self again.

EVE's voice laughed through the speakers. Thanks to a newly installed device in her head, she could communicate with the control center via radio waves and satellite dishes. She had used this method to correspond with the Captain and the technicians for the past eleven days, but she had not expected a call from WALL·E to come through.

For a while all they did was say each other's names back and forth, delighted just to hear each others voices. Then as they started to calm down, a real conversation began.

"Eee-vah have fun with sisters?" WALL·E asked.

He could practically hear her nodding on the other side. "Yes, sisters fun. Work hard, many satellites gone."

"Use gun lots?"

She giggled. "Yes, all use gun lots."

WALL·E chuckled. "Good! Eee-vah have fun with sisters and gun. Eee-vah happy!"

There was a pause. Some static crackled in the speakers. "WALL·E …"

Her voice sounded heavier somehow. Concerned, he clutched the microphone tighter. "Eee-vah?"

"Home …" she said. "Earth home …"

He blinked, confused. "Home?"

Her voice faltered slightly. "Space…" She paused, trying to hold her emotions in check. "Empty …"

"Eee-vah?" he said, his tone both surprised and confused. Hadn't she wanted to go to space? Wasn't that why she volunteered for the mission?

There was another long pause. "WALL·E home … EVE miss …" She trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

At that moment, WALL·E understood. EVE was not happy. Being in space was not making her happy. He wanted to reach through the microphone and hold her hand, to make her sadness go away forever. He wanted to say something that would cheer her up and bring back the wonderful sound of her laughter. But he was unable to translate any of that into words.

So he pressed the 'play' button on his music player. He had listened to the same song on repeat for days. Now EVE needed to hear it. As it began, he held the microphone against the speaker to be sure the music would go through.

_It only takes a moment  
For your eyes to meet and then  
Your heart knows in a moment  
You will never be alone again_

If EVE were capable of crying, tears would have streamed down her face. Instead, she gazed down at the Earth below her and clasped her hands over her heart, knowing her beloved was there waiting for her. She could not bring herself to tell him that the lighter he gave her wasn't working. It didn't matter, anyway. Even if all the lighters in the world weren't working, even if she were on the opposite of the galaxy, it would change nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The control room fell totally silent. M-O, the robots, the Captain and all the technicians suddenly felt like intruders on a deeply personal exchange. But again WALL·E was oblivious to his surroundings. His only thought was of EVE and making her happy again. He held the microphone to his chest the whole time, until the song was over.

When it stopped, he spoke into it again. "Eee-vah … better now?"

EVE took a moment to compose herself before answering. Her voice sounded more contented this time. "Yes … thank you, WALL·E …"

The song had helped her. He felt better than he had in weeks. "Be happy, Eee-vah… Directive end soon … Then Eee-vah be home … Home with WALL·E."

EVE made a sound that resembled her familiar giggle very much. Then loud static crackled through the speakers. "No!" she cried over the noise. "Connec-… Fail-…"

WALL·E became worried. He was losing her. As the static increased his voice grew frantic. "Eee-vah? Eee-vah! _Eee-vah!_"

She tried to answer him through the noise, but only pieces came through. "WALL-…! WA -…! A- …!" Then the buzzing static drowned her out, and she was gone.

The technician sighed and pressed a button, shutting the speakers off. "I'm sorry, Captain. This equipment is so old … It's hard to keep a connection for more than a few minutes."

The Captain nodded his head and patted the young man's shoulder. "It's okay, son. You did your best." Then he turned to the small robot still clutching the microphone tightly. He knelt and tried to comfort him. "WALL·E, you're more than welcome to come back here any time. The reception might be stronger tomorrow."

WALL·E stared at the microphone in silence a bit longer. Then, very calmly, he shook his head. "No … Eee-vah has directive … Sisters need Eee-vah." He turned to face the Captain and gave the microphone back to him. "Directive end soon … WALL·E wait … Wait for Eee-vah."

The Captain smiled back. "All right, if that's what you want. Her ship lands next week, Friday at two o'clock. Don't be late."

WALL·E gave a firm nod. He shook the Captain's hand, thanking him for his help, and turned around to leave the control room. M-O followed with the other robots, worrying that his plan had backfired. But then WALL·E began to hum _Put on Your Sunday Clothes, _and M-O beamed with pride once more.

As the robots left, the young technician heard sniffling. He turned in his seat and saw the Captain still standing there. His eyes were moist. "Sir?" the young man said in shock. "Are you _crying?_"

The Captain quickly wiped his eyes. "No, no! It's dust! WALL·E's always leaving dust everywhere, you know that! Now get back to work!"

Up in space, EVE was still looking down at the Earth. She no longer felt sad. She had no reason to be sad anymore. WALL·E was waiting for her, rooting for her back home. He wanted her to fulfill this directive. And she would do it. Not for the Captain, or her sisters, or even herself.

She would do it for him. For WALL·E.

Spreading her white arms, she arced up and back. Soon she was high above the debris field. She scanned the satellites with her blue ray, searching for a suitable target. When she found one she deployed her cannon, took aim and fired. The solar panels and then the body disintegrated into tiny sparkling dots.

For the first time in weeks, EVE was happy. As she scanned the field for more targets, she began to hum.

_To be continued..._


	5. Homecoming

Homecoming

WALL·E could not remember the last time he had felt so excited. Today was the day. EVE was coming home.

After his talk with her at the spaceport last week, he had actually gone inside his truck again. It still seemed too empty in there, but it wasn't as bad as before. He opened a packaged BnL sponge cake and let Hal the 15th eagerly burrow in. Then he turned to the space where EVE usually hovered in sleep mode. It was getting dusty. He took a little brush and dust pan from his collection and swept the floor. Then he boxed up, sat on his shelf, and went to sleep.

The next morning he went up to the roof and charged his solar batteries. When they were full he took a moment to admire the view. The sunny blue sky was reflected in the bay where small fishing boats sailed, and in the distance the mountainous shape of the Axiom loomed like a sleeping giant. It was a fantastic view. How had he spent so many days in this same spot and not noticed it all?

WALL·E did not stay on the roof for long, though. It was time to go to work. He went back down to the truck to retrieve his collection box and then set out for the city junkyard. Along the way he heard many human and robot voices happily greeting him. When he arrived at the junkyard all his co-workers behaved the same way. He greeted everyone just as happily, realizing he had missed seeing them, too.

All day long WALL·E worked. He found many interesting items in the trash that day. Some plastic action figures with missing limbs, an eight track tape reading _The Best of Bing Crosby_ on the cover, a dancing cactus wearing a sombrero, and a stuffed monkey doll with stains and one eye. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed this part of his job. EVE always liked to see what he found, so he planned to show her all these new treasures when she came home.

When work was done he hooked his box to its latch, waved goodbye to his co-workers and whistled his favorite show tunes as he headed home. When he got there Hal the 15th was there waiting for him. As he fed his pet a new sponge cake, WALL·E marveled at how similar this Hal was to the first one. Come to think of it, all the other cockroaches EVE had given him behaved very much like his first one. She certainly knew what to look for when it came to choosing new pets.

It was like that for the rest of the week. The more things WALL·E did, the more places he went and more people he saw, he felt better and better. The world had not ended, and life was not over simply because EVE was not beside him. She was always in the back of his mind, but her absence was no longer painful. He no longer felt an empty void where his heart was. If he ever felt anything close to it, he simply played back his happy memories of her. He had fifteen years worth of them saved up, so he never ran out. He also remembered that the day of her return was fast approaching. But every night, before he went to sleep mode, he would look up at the stars and hope that she was getting along as well as he was.

And EVE was getting along well. Like WALL·E, she had drawn strength from their brief connection. It reminded her of why she had been so eager to accept this mission in the first place. At the start of her waking cycles she would zip around the debris field as free as a bird, pretending she was dancing with her partner. When she needed to destroy a target she would do it with gusto, and put the same enthusiasm into giving orders to her sisters.

The Earth was always in view, but EVE did not feel sad when she saw it anymore. She would still think of WALL·E, of course, and the lighter still didn't work, but she didn't try to light it anymore. She didn't need to. Just having it there, safely stowed in her torso chamber, was enough to remind her of how much she was loved. WALL·E did not want her to be sad, so she wasn't. She had wasted too much time being sad and there was very little time left. She absolutely would not face him until she could truly make him proud.

EVE was so busy enjoying her work that she didn't even notice how surprised her sisters were to see her acting like her old self again. They were aware that she had been in contact with the spaceport recently, but it had been a private connection which they could not hear through their own transmitters. Whatever it was, EVE's emotional glitch seemed to have cured itself and the mission could continue as planned.

Now the return date had come.

Everyone was excited for the rocket to bring the probe-bots home, but no one was more excited than WALL·E. Once again the spaceport roof was crowded with humans and robots, and he got the same spot up front with his friends. It was Friday, very hot and sunny, and exactly fifteen minutes to two in the afternoon. In his head he was doing his own countdown until the ship was scheduled to land.

When the fifteen minutes were nearly up, and WALL·E was beginning to worry he was counting wrong, there was a loud roaring noise overhead. Everyone looked up and had to either shield their eyes with dark glasses or readjust their optics. Three bright pillars of flame poured down from the heavens, creating a thick cloud on the launch pad below.

WALL·E counted. 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1!

The ship touched down right as the last second ticked off. No sooner had that second passed then WALL·E was speeding for the elevator, but two stewards were blocking the entrance. Before he could try to get around them, Hannah had caught up to him.

"It's not safe to go down there yet, WALL·E. Too much smoke and heat. You'd either get lost or cooked in that cloud!"

The garbage-bot shook his rusty fists and gave an impatient whine. Hannah snickered at his frustrated behavior, then smiled sympathetically.

"I know, you wanna go meet EVE now, but you've already waited three weeks for her. A few more minutes aren't gonna kill you, right?"

WALL·E was almost certain that they would. But when he looked back at the launch pad again, he saw that the human girl was right. The dust cloud kicked up by the jets was so huge and thick that it almost obscured the rocket completely. Even when he zoomed his binocular eyes in as close as he could, the haze was still too thick for him to see through. Only the properly equipped maintenance bots could go near it now. So WALL·E went inside the spaceport with his friends and waited. For twenty-minutes he waited. Then M-O who came to his rescue once again. He was leading his team of cleaner-bots to the exit but as soon as he saw WALL·E, he skidded to a halt and chirped at him as if to say _Are you coming or what?_

WALL·E jumped at the chance. Surely if it were safe for the cleaner-bots to go now it would be safe for him. But he should check with his young human friend to be certain. "Hah-nah?"

The girl looked at him, then at M-O and his group. She tapped her chin for a moment, then she shrugged. "Sure, I guess it's okay. I'll give the landing guys a ring for you."

That was all WALL·E needed to hear. By the time Hannah fished her cell phone out of her bag he was already accompanying M-O's group to the exit. A transport-bot was waiting for them, but there wasn't much room for him with the whole group on it. Thankfully the vacuum-bot was kind enough to let him piggyback. Soon they were speeding across the steamy tarmac, but it still seemed painfully slow. Undaunted, he zoomed his optics onto the rocket again. The smoke was clearing now, and he could make out the distant forms of maintenance bots performing their post-landing duties. There was no way for him to tell if the probes had come out yet.

Suddenly, a squealing white blur pierced through the cloud, swept him off the vacuum-bot's back and high into the air. It took less than a second for him to recognize the joyful blue eyes beaming at him and the voice that was practically singing his name.

"WALL·EEEE!"

"Eee-vaaah!"

He was so happy that he didn't care that she was holding him hundreds of feet off the ground. He flung his arms around her and held on with all his might, pressed his optics against the space below her head and listened to the hum of her inner workings. How long had it been since they had held each other like this? Never mind, it didn't matter. She was here now, holding him now, just like she always had.

Eventually the robot lovers had to return to the ground, but they refused to let anything else part them. When M-O and his crew cleaned EVE, when all their friends came to greet her, even when the Captain summoned her, WALL·E stayed right by her side tightly clasping her hand. He wouldn't have noticed her four sister probes at all if they hadn't been constantly following her. They kept looking at him and murmuring to each other in a very skeptical way. Normally this would have worried him, but he was holding EVE's hand again for the first time in three weeks. All four of them could have fired their lasers at him and he wouldn't have cared.

Currently they were in a part of the spaceport that was converted into a conference room. Besides the Captain there were many other humans there. Hannah was the youngest member in the group, but there were a few others who were only a few years older than her. Among them WALL·E recognized the technician who had helped him contact EVE. He gave the young man a friendly wave, which was returned with a smile.

The purpose of this meeting was to talk about the results of the spaceport's first atmosphere clean-up mission. The man who was talking now was the leader of the technicians in charge of monitoring the progress of the probe-bots. His name was Milton, and he was gesturing to a chart displayed on a large holo-screen on the wall. "As you can see," Milton was saying. "The productivity levels of Probes 2 through 5 stayed consistent throughout the mission. But look at Probe 1's graph. Her level was high for the first few days, then declined drastically and completely bottomed out by the second week. These erratic results have me and my group concerned that Probe 1 may have a defect."

The word 'defect' got EVE's attention. She didn't like it when people questioned her abilities. She looked at the Captain, who was sitting at the head of the long conference table with a very pensive look on his face.

"Hmm … I hear what you're saying, but I don't think I agree with you." He turned to the group of roboticists. "You checked all her systems for any glitches before the launch, didn't you?"

Hannah would have jumped up and answered him but her older comrades held her back. Their adult leader, a gray-haired woman named Susan, answered instead. "Yes, sir, we ran diagnostics on all the EVE probes and found no defects in any of their programming."

"Then how do you explain these results?" Milton questioned, in a rather self-important tone. "What do your diagnostics say about all this? Clearly something was going on with Probe 1 while she was in space. What if she was damaged by a meteorite or some other piece of debris?"

Susan did not like the lead technician's tone but she kept her voice calm. "The EVE probes are equipped with fail-safe mechanisms that cause automatic stasis-lock if they receive serious damage. And if you're so concerned with consistent results, Milton, why don't you take another look at the charts for Probes 2 through 5? That sudden spike in the middle of the timeline doesn't look so consistent to me."

She was right and Milton knew it, but he refused to let her win this argument. "How do you know these fail-safe mechanisms weren't faulty? Maybe your diagnostic equipment is what was really malfunctioning all along."

"Our equipment came straight from the Axiom, just like yours!" Susan retorted. "Why don't you check your _own_ machines before you go blaming somebody else's?" The conference rapidly began to deteriorate into an argument between the technicians and the roboticists, but before it could get too far the Captain pounded a fist on the table.

"Hey! This isn't a contest about whose machines work better! We aren't gonna find any answers if we keep bickering, so all of you just simmer down!"

"With all due respect, Captain," Milton replied. "Any equipment that didn't come from the Axiom is faulty at best and -"

The Captain silenced him with a hard look. "Unless you have something useful to say, Milton, I think you'd better sit down." He scanned the faces of the other humans for any signs of misbehavior. "Is there anyone in this room who can tell me a good reason for EVE's behavior in space _without_ starting a fight?"

The room was quiet for several moments. Then a hand went up. "Permission to speak, Captain?"

He nodded to her. "Yes, Hannah, what do you have to say?"

There was a bit of muffled scoffing, but another hard look from the Captain sent the room back into silence. Hannah was not only the youngest human in the room but she also had the lowest status. She was more like an assistant trainee than a true roboticist. This basically meant she was only allowed to talk to the robots and not take them apart, but she seemed to think that she was an expert on them anyway. Many of the adults didn't appreciate Hannah's cocky attitude. At the moment she didn't care about any of that. Besides the Captain she knew EVE better than any of the humans in the room did, and the only thing on her mind now was to set everyone else straight.

Hannah stood up so that everyone could see and hear her. She put her hands on her hips and frowned at the adults around her, as if they were a bunch of unruly kindergarteners. "I think my colleagues are forgetting some very important details here, Captain. And honestly, I'm surprised they could. Everybody in this room is older than me, and should know _exactly_ what EVE is like by now!"

Every adult in the room glared at her. Even the Captain was growing impatient. "Hannah, we don't have time for a lecture today. Just get to the point, please."

Hannah puffed herself up even taller, which really wasn't all that tall. "My point is that EVE isn't just a simple robot who only follows whatever orders she's given. She's got emotions and a personality. And everyone knows about her relationship with WALL·E. Of course she'd be depressed about leaving him for so long!"

Slowly the Captain began to smile. He had hoped she would say something like this. "So, you believe the reason she wasn't working as hard as her sisters is an emotional one?"

"Exactly!" Hannah thrust a triumphant finger in the air, then aimed that finger at the robot couple at the back of the room. "I mean, just look how cuddly she's been with him! She hasn't let him go since she got back!"

Both EVE and WALL·E felt slightly embarrassed that this fact was pointed out so bluntly, but the other probes and the humans were listening to her. Maybe EVE wouldn't get in trouble after all.

Another hand went up. It was the young technician WALL·E remembered. The Captain acknowledged him. "Yes, Luke, do you have something to add?"

Luke stood up and cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable being in the spotlight. "Um, I think Hannah has a good point. EVE's productivity was low until the day she spoke with WALL·E. After that it went back up to the same level as when she started. Right, guys?" He glanced around at his comrades for support. They nodded quietly.

"All right!" the Captain said, obviously pleased by these developments. "That explains what EVE's problem was. Now, what about the other probes? Why did their productivity levels go up when hers went down?"

Hannah waved her arm eagerly. "I know! They're her sisters! They were picking up her slack so she wouldn't get in trouble!"

The Captain stifled a snicker. "Really? What makes you think that?"

Hannah folded her arms. "You said they were sisters, sir, so that's how I taught them to act. How else could you get a bunch of stubborn bots like EVE to work as a team?"

Again EVE felt embarrassed by the girl's bluntness, but this time she was also surprised. She had not realized what her sisters had done while she was stuck in her funk. When she looked at them they looked back at her with discreet smiles in their eyes.

The Captain leaned back in his chair with a big grin on his face. "Well, I think that about covers it. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Luke raised his hand. "I have a question, sir. Should we stick to the plan to send the EVE probes on more space missions?"

WALL·E instinctively clutched EVE's hand tighter. She squeezed back and waited apprehensively.

"I don't see why not." the Captain said. Then he turned in his seat to address the robots personally. "Of course, the final decision is up to you, EVE. What do you want to do?"

EVE looked at her partner and at her sisters for a long moment. Then she tried to answer the Captain as well as she could. "EVE need more time … Think about it …"

The man nodded. "Okay, you do that. Take some time off with WALL·E, visit with your sisters, then let us know what you decide."

Then he stood up and officially called the meeting to an end. At last the robot couple was free to go home. They started to leave the room together, but the sound of four probe-bots in motion slowed them down. EVE and WALL·E looked behind them. Sure enough, Probes 2 through 5 were tailing them. EVE asked them an electronic question in their own language. Rose responded. WALL·E looked up at EVE for a translation. There was a distinct note of discomfort in her voice. "Sisters want visit … Captain say so."

WALL·E stared blankly at her for a moment, thinking he had misunderstood. When he realized he hadn't, he tried to come up with some way to get out of this new mess. He hadn't waited three weeks for EVE to come back just so her sisters could steal her away again! "Uh … Eee-vah need vacation … Sisters visit _later?_" He put extra emphasis on the last phrase, hoping they would get the hint. They did not raise any objections and agreed to stay at the spaceport until they were called for. As they filed out with the roboticists, WALL·E couldn't help noticing that the probes were still giving him funny looks.

When the couple returned home, Hal the 15th was waiting for them. He chirped and hopped happily at the sight of EVE. She filled the truck with her laughter as the insect scurried all over her body. Then she sighed and looked around at all the shelves full of knickknacks and keepsakes. The strings of lights were lit and the spot were she slept had been freshly dusted. It was like she was seeing the place for the first time again.

WALL·E was soon showing her the items he had found while she was away. EVE inspected and admired them all, especially the action figures. They had some foldable pieces on them which made them seem to change into a different object. First they looked like little humans wearing clunky armor, but with a bit of switching and flipping, they turned into cars or airplanes.

Later WALL·E decided to try playing the new tape he had found. He dug an old cassette player out of one of the shelves and found that the tape fit perfectly inside. When he pressed the play button a man's deep voice began singing through the speakers. Both robots were fascinated by this new discovery and huddled around the player to hear the music better. WALL·E even pressed the record button on his own music player to save the songs for work time.

When they had finished listening to all twelve songs on the tape, the pair moved to the truck's roof. The sun had set long ago and the sky was now a deep blue tapestry studded with tiny diamonds. "Eee-vah…" WALL·E took a firm grip on EVE's hand and watched her for a long time to make absolutely certain that she was really here and not up there anymore.

As if reading his thoughts, she leaned closer and rested the side of her head against his. "WALL·E…" she sighed contentedly. Perhaps she would accept the Captain's offer and return to space one day. Perhaps she would invite her sisters to visit her at home. But there was no need to decide any of that tonight. She was with WALL·E again, her dear, sweet, wonderful WALL·E, and she would not leave him again, not for a long, long time.

Suddenly EVE remembered something. She pulled away from WALL·E and opened up her bio-stasis chamber. Releasing her grip on his hand she reached inside and took out the lighter. Confused, he watched as she carefully opened the lid and flicked the switch. There was a spark, and then a tiny flame ignited. EVE's eyes grew wide in amazement and closed with relief. As she gazed at the flickering light she noticed her sweetheart's deep, soulful optics gazing back at her. She lowered the flame, leaned forward and passed a spark of her own to him.

Just like her, the lighter had never been broken. It just needed to be on Earth, where it belonged.

_The End_


End file.
